Clark proposed this model in order to move from Austin's controversial
classificationFor discussion of the controversies around Austin's classification of speech acts see [1]} of speech acts [2]} to
a ladder of actions which characterizes
not only the actions that are performed in language use (as Austin's does) but
also their inter-relationships. Clark clark96 defines a ladder of actions as a set of co-temporal actions which provide
upward causality and downward evidence. Let us discuss these
using Table REF ; we will call the speaker
Anna and the addressee Barny. Suppose that Anna tells Barny to sit down. We might say that Anna is performing just one action: asking Barny to sit down. But it is easy to argue that she is performing four distinct, though co-temporal, actions
— actions beginning and ending simultaneously. These actions are in a causal relation going up the ladder (from level 1 up to level 4): Anna must get Barny to attend her behavior t (level 1) in order to get him to hear the words she is presenting in her signals (level 2). Anna must succeed at that in order to get Barny to recognize what she means (level 3), and she must succeed at that in order to get Barny to
uptake the project she is proposing (level 4). In short, causality (do
something in
order to get some result) climbs up the ladder; this property
Clark calls upward
causality.
